Lottery player had ‘good feeling’ about ticket. Then she won life-changing prize
A lottery player had a “good feeling” about a ticket — then it scored her a life-changing prize.
“Something just told me to buy that one,” Angelette Cheek told the North Carolina Education Lottery in an April 16 news release. “I like playing the new games.”
Cheek “trusted her gut” when she played the Emerald 10’s game, which launched in early April. She tried her luck at Neal’s Gas & Convenience in Pittsboro, a roughly 35-mile drive west from Raleigh, officials said.
It turns out, Cheek’s $10 ticket was worth $1 million, making her the winner of the first top prize in the scratch-off game.
“I started scratching and I saw the one followed by the ‘m’ and I was just in shock,” said Cheek, who lives in Pittsboro.
While cashing in at the lottery’s headquarters in Raleigh, Cheek chose to take her prize as a lump sum of $600,000. The lucky winner — who kept $430,503 after taxes — plans to spend the money on her family members and home projects.
“I always said one day I would get a ticket that would send me to Raleigh,” Cheek told lottery officials. “You’ve just got to be in it to win it.”
It’s not the first time someone’s instinct led to a big lottery win. In South Carolina, a lucky player was leaving a store “when something told her to turn around” and buy a ticket that made her much richer, McClatchy News reported in April 2024.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Lottery player had ‘good feeling’ about ticket. Then she won life-changing prize."
